Estudo etnobotânico de plantas medicinais em comunidades urbanas do Município de Patos - Paraíba, Brasil.

Abstract

Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants in urban communities in the Municipality of Patos - Paraíba, Brazil. The traditional use of plants to treat minor health problems is well known; however, little is known about dosage, associators, methods of preparation and toxicity risks. Considering this, a survey of the most used plants in some urban communities of the municipality of Patos-Paraíba, Brazil. The main objective was to highlight the medicinal knowledge of the communities interviewed and to draw a profile of the users of medicinal plants. Data collection took place through semi-structured interviews with open and closed questions, applied to users of five Health Centers in the city. Data were collected regarding the profile of informants and the use of medicinal plants. 100 answered questionnaires were obtained, 20 per Health Center. Thirty-nine species used by respondents were identified. Of the universe of respondents, 73% were female, and the rest were male. It was found that 83% of informants use medicinal plants. The leaves are the part of the vegetable most used in the preparation of medicines (42%). Most of these are prepared in the form of tea (48%) and lick (40%). Most respondents reported satisfactory results with the use of medicinal plants. Knowledge is acquired mainly through observation with older people. Considering the heterogeneous level of community members, there was a great interaction with the environment in search of providing means for curing their ailments.